Priyanka Vadra helped Varun Gandhi oust me from Pilibhit: Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Congress leader

BARELI: Senior Congress leader Vinod Kumar Tiwari accused BJP leader Varun Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka of colluding against him, and said he was denied the ticket to contest from Pilibhit because there were fears that a strong Congress candidate would divide Hindu votes. Such a division would hurt the prospects of BJP candidate from Pilibhit, Maneka Gandhi, he said.

Tiwari said the Congress candidate from Pilibhit, Sanjay Kapoor, was considered weak, and seen as "an outsider".

Tiwari, three-time MLA from Puranpur, said, "My relentless efforts to drive home the message that the Gandhi bahu (Maneka Gandhi) has done nothing for the area during her 25 years of association with it has perhaps started cutting ice with voters. This rattled them (the Gandhis) and they apprehended a major dent in the Hindu vote bank, which is why veiled threats of getting my ticket cancelled started doing the rounds."

Asked on what basis he was making the allegations, given the stature of those he was attacking and the coldness of relations between the families of Maneka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, Tiwari said, "No doubt relations between the daughters-in-law have remained strained, and reached an all-time low. There is still, however, some bonding between cousins Varun and Priyanka. In Pilibhit, Maneka Gandhi and her son have always won elections by dividing Hindu votes, and turning the contest into a Hindu-Muslim one. Moreover, during the last 10 years, they have succeeded in their designs, given the friendly gesture of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which fielded Muslim candidate Anis Ahmad Phool Babu in 2004 and 2009, and has also fielded him again this year. Just days ago, Maneka Gandhi had questioned the source of Sonia Gandhi's wealth."

Tiwari said Congress candidate Sanjay Kapoor, sitting MLA from Bilaspur in Rampur district, is an "outsider" in Pilibhit. "Kapoor rang me up and said he was not interested in contesting elections from the seat, but had been forced to do so by the party high command," Tiwari said, adding that Kapoor was also close to Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra, whose home district of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh is close to Rampur.

Congress candidate Sanjay Kapoor was not available for comments on the matter.